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A SURVEY OF SCOTTISH PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATIONS: Executive Summary
The aim of this report is to outline the results of a survey of Scottish public sector organisations undertaken between September and November 2005. The survey is part of a larger investigation undertaken by Warwick Business School, on behalf of the Scottish Executive, on the evaluation of the Lean approach to business management in the public sector.
The definition of Lean used for the purpose of this survey was provided in the survey questionnaire. The definition used is essentially any good practices of process / operations improvement that have resulted in a reduction of waste, improved the flow and provided a better concept of customers and process views.
The Scottish Executive distributed the questionnaire via email to all public sector organisations in Scotland. Questionnaires were completed by those implementing Lean and returned via either email or post. In summary, 24 responses to the survey were received from a variety of public sector organisations mainly located in the north, west and central areas of Scotland.
The analysis of the survey results has produced the following main conclusions:
- A significant proportion of public sector organisations are undertaking business improvement projects using Lean concepts, tools and techniques, primarily in the area of housing and finance.
- The main aims of these projects are to improve quality, improve customer satisfaction and to reduce lead-time.
- All survey respondents are developing plans to implement Lean projects in other departments or business areas.
- The main resources required by organisations when implementing projects include additional internal staff and external support in the form of consultants.
- Many organisations utilised a combination of external support, but especially customers or a specialised consultancy when implementing Lean projects.
- The main strategies used to engage staff was consultations with staff and the use of workshops and awareness raising sessions.
- A combination of methods was used for communicating progress on the Lean projects, but the main methods were meetings and intranets.
- Many of the Lean projects were reported to have been successful in achieving their original aims.
- Those Lean projects deemed to be unsuccessful in achieving their original aims were mainly concerned with cost reduction or workforce reduction.
- Managerial commitment to ongoing improvement was seen as the most important factor contributing to the success of the Lean projects.
- The most important barriers were organisational culture, a resistance to change and lack of awareness or knowledge of Lean.
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